By His Side
by heyyo
Summary: What happened in 7.20 after Ryan got home from a crappy day at work? Calleigh comes knocking to get the whole truth and gets more than she bargained for. Not CaRWash specifically, but if you ship it, you'll be pleased. One-shot!


**Angsty one shot time! WOO! So, here's what happens after 7.20 when Ryan comes home after the whole ordeal. This could be CaRWash if you want it to be. Or if you don't, it's R/C friendship. Enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned CSI: Miami, Ryan would end up being the only character and I don't think that would turn out so well. So no. Don't own anything.**

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The door slowly clicked shut. Ryan leaned his back on it and sighed. He closed his eyes and rubbed his face. He was tired, but was afraid of falling asleep. He probably wouldn't be able to sleep anyway. The entire way home Eric's annoyingly soft yet threatening voice rang through his head. All he could hear was, "Get out." All he could see was Calleigh shaking her head and looking down. He wasn't even given a fair chance to explain. Not that he would have told those two anyway. They wouldn't care. They were too caught up in themselves to even bat an eyelash if one of their coworkers got beaten within a few inches of his life.

Ryan felt himself slide to the ground, his face in his hands. That day had been the longest day of his life. He had been through some major crap in his life, but this was the icing on the cake. He frowned and took a deep, painful breath. He knew his ribs were bruised and fractured, but he couldn't do anything about it. If he went to a doctor, someone would eventually find out. Stetler would want to chalk it up as another reason to fire Ryan Wolfe again. Ryan's entire body hurt. The entire day he had to stop himself from wincing or doubling over in pain. He took off his choking tie and threw it across the floor. It had been nearly killing him all day by being constrained around the bruise on his neck.

He did the right thing. He was willing to die to avoid going against Horatio and the team. But he wasn't willing to let someone else die for it. Especially Billy Gantry.

A knock came from the door Ryan was sitting against. He stood up slowly, painfully, and looked in the peephole. He gasped at what he saw and carefully opened the door.

"What are you doing here?" He asked.

Calleigh gave him a worried yet suspicious look as she analyzed his appearance. He looked a little different than he had an hour earlier. He was a little more disheveled and like he was trying to fight off tears. Surely he wouldn't be that upset about her and Eric coming down on him. But then again, she wasn't sure exactly how Ryan took their unwelcoming vibe since he was reinstated. She snapped back to reality, put on her trademarked defensive Calleigh face and said, "I came to talk to you. I know there's something you aren't telling me and I'm not leaving until I find out."

Ryan, still in the doorway, still wasn't sure why she was here. "Well you can stay here all night because I have nothing to say." He started to close the door but she put out her hand and stopped it.

"Look, I gave you two honest chances to explain yourself and you said nothing. You better be glad I'm giving you a third." She knew she was being harsh, but if she kept pushing she knew she would get something out of him. That was how Calleigh always got information out of Ryan. If you push hard enough, he will cave.

"Thanks for the option Calleigh, but I'll have to pass this one." He said sarcastically.

She sighed and looked down for a moment with her hand still firm on the door. In a less hostile tone, she said, "Ryan….I know something was going on with you today. I know you would never just hide critical evidence from us for no reason." She looked up at him. "Did someone threaten you to do that?"

This struck a cord somewhere in his mind. His eyes flashed a mix of worry, embarrassment, and sadness. He could always express so much with his eyes. It was rare for her to not be able to tell exactly what he was thinking just by looking at them. No matter what his face or words said.

He composed himself slightly and said, "Why don't you go keep Eric company?"

She brushed off his comment and stared straight at him. "Did someone threaten you Ryan?"

"Calleigh…." He was using the voice he used earlier when he said he hadn't been gambling.

It was then she noticed the bruise around his neck. Her mouth fell open. "What happened to you?" Her tough act was completely gone. She was openly concerned.

"It was nothing."

She took a step closer and grabbed the collar of his shirt to get a better look. He tried to stop her, but she slapped his hand away. She pulled the shirt to reveal around his shoulder and saw bruises and scars. She stopped, put her hands at her sides, and took a step back. "Oh…." She said quietly.

Ryan looked everywhere but in her eyes. He couldn't speak. He was not ready to talk about this yet. He wasn't sure if he would ever be ready to talk about it, but this was definitely not the right time to confess things.

"Who did this?" Calleigh continued.

He looked at the floor. "It's not that big of a deal."

"Was it the Russians?"

"They told me…." He took a deep breath and winced at the pain. "They told me they would kill Billy Gantry if I didn't do it…"

Calleigh stood and watched him in shock. He must have gone through something awful to have earned all those battle wounds. She noticed his pain when he tried to breathe. "Have you been to a doctor?" was all she could think to say.

"I don't want anyone to find out I was…." He didn't want to talk anymore about it.

Calleigh realized they were still standing in the doorway and she moved inside until they faced each other and he absent mindedly closed the door. She put a hand on his shoulder and said, "Why don't you just sit, I'll call Alexx, ok?"

"No!" He looked up at her. "The less people that know, the better."

"I think you might have some broken ribs. Someone needs to come and at least prescribe you something. Alexx won't tell anyone." She said as she flipped her phone open.

Ryan grabbed the phone out of her hands. "Calleigh….please…"

She snatched the phone back from him. "Sit down. I'm calling her now."

"Calleigh what are you doing? I didn't ask for you to come over and mess with me! Go home and get on Eric's nerves!" At this point Ryan sat down, clutched his stomach, and started coughing painfully.

Calleigh walked over and put a concerned hand on his shoulder but she jumped back when she saw blood drip from his mouth. "I'm taking you to the hospital!"

"NO!" He yelled between coughs.

"I'm not having you die on me Wolfe!"

"What do you care?!"

"You're my colleague, I want you to be safe!"

He stood up and grabbed her by the arm. He didn't care if he was still coughing or if the blood was still running down his chin. "You do NOT! If you did you would have looked for me YESTERDAY when I got kidnapped and they tortured me for 12 hours!!" He let go of her. He stopped coughing, but he was having trouble breathing.

"Ryan….we didn't know….how were we supposed to?"

"You know…." He said through labored breathing, "I know I'm not Speedle, but I figured that when I don't answer my phone all night and you KNOW the Russians are after us, that someone might worry. But I guess not."

Calleigh thought back to the day before. She faintly remembered Eric getting mad because Ryan hadn't answered his phone a couple times, but forgot it pretty quickly. "You still think we don't like you because of Speed?"

Ryan started taking deep breaths and had to sit down again. He looked like he was about to pass out. Calleigh said, "Ryan, get up, we're going to the hospital." If she didn't get him into her car now, he might lose consciousness and she wouldn't be able to drag him.

His eyes were starting to lose focus and he felt the world tilt to the side as he faintly heard Calleigh yelling as everything went black.

She dialed 911 and waited. Ryan was laying there, passed out on the floor. She tried to shake him, but he was unresponsive. She knelt close to his face and realized that he was breathing very slowly. She kept shaking him and yelling his name. Tears started to sting her eyes. They were both so helpless; he was lying there about to die, and she was just crying while watching it happen. Why hadn't she thought that he could have been in trouble the day before? She just assumed he was being difficult and didn't want to help. How could she look at him with a split lip and a tooth missing and assume he was gambling after all of that?

Sirens were heard in the distance. She wiped away her tears and sniffed as they got closer.

An hour later Calleigh was sitting when a doctor approached her. She stood up and quickly asked how Ryan was doing.

The doctor put on a reassuring face and said, "He'll be fine, but I can't really give you details unless you're family. Are they here?"

Calleigh looked away from the doctor for a moment and pondered what the doctor said. Family. That's how she felt with Eric, Horatio, Natalia, even Valera. She once felt that way with Ryan, but only for a short time before he was fired. She wasn't outright mean to him when he got reinstated, but she didn't act the same around him. No one did.

"Ma'am?" The doctor interrupted her thoughts. "Do you know if Mr. Wolfe's family is here?"

Did Ryan even have any family? "Uh…no. I'm his colleague, I called 911. You can tell me what his condition is."

"Well, I noticed Mr. Wolfe has several bruises, cuts, and some broken ribs. His body is totally worn out from whatever he went through, but he's going to be perfectly fine so long as he takes it easy for the next few months." The doctor moved in closer and lowered his voice. "Now, I'm not an expert on cops or anything, but surely it's not that rigorous of a job….he's been beaten pretty bad."

Calleigh once again felt tears of guilt come to her eyes. "Um…It's…It's being handled, don't worry about it. Thank you, doctor. Can he have visitors?"

The doctor decided not to press the matter and said, "Yes, he's awake and is refusing to sleep. I'm going to keep him overnight just to be sure, so I moved him to a room." He looked at the clipboard in his hands. "Let's see….room 412."

Calleigh thanked him and went to the nearest lady's room to compose herself a bit. Normally she wasn't this emotional, so she had to keep it in check. Once she calmed down and assessed her appearance in the mirror, she walked out and slowly made her way towards Ryan's room.

She softly knocked on the door and slowly opened it. A tired and grumpy Ryan was sitting on the bed staring at the remote and pressing all the buttons but to no avail. He felt a presence in the room and looked up at Calleigh awkwardly standing to the side of him.

"Ryan…." Was all she could say before she felt tears coming again.

"What are you doing here?" Ryan asked in a much softer tone than before.

She just looked at him. Her face told him enough. "I'm fine, Cal." He finally said.

"I can't even begin to…" What was happening? Calleigh Duquesne never showed emotion like this. She felt so stupid, standing here about to burst into tears in front of one of her colleagues. She didn't even cry when Eric was shot.

Ryan's eyes widened. He could never imagine Calleigh like this. "No, I should have told you the whole thing when you asked me. It's not your fault." His comforting tone was making her face start to cringe even more.

"No….I've been so awful to you…we all have…" She replied in a weak voice. "And it took something like this for me to realize…"

Ryan opened his mouth but stopped himself. He was going to tell her it was alright, that nothing had bothered him. But he wasn't going to keep lying about anything else today.

A knock was heard at the door. Calleigh stiffened and wiped her eyes just as the tears began to surface. A flash of orangey red was seen, and soon Horatio was in the room. In her guilt, Calleigh forgot she called him.

He strode into the room and nodded at Calleigh and looked to Ryan. "Mr. Wolfe, how are you feeling?"

"Everything's fine, H. The doctor is just being overprotective is all."

"I heard you coughed up blood and passed out. Calleigh was very concerned."

Ryan looked at Calleigh and felt bad for her. Sure, he'd been hurt by everyone at MDPD but Horatio, but he felt bad for yelling at Calleigh earlier and causing a scare. He flashed a small smile and said, "Well, Calleigh is a nice girl. It was good of her to be concerned." He glanced at her and her face showed immediate terror and guilt. She must have taken that as sarcasm.

"That she is." Horatio smiled and looked at her.

Calleigh gave them both a fake smile and stared into the distance.

"Well, I'm going to call the others and let them know everything is alright. Excuse me for a moment." Horatio stepped out of the room.

As soon as the door clicked shut, Ryan sighed with relief for the privacy and said, "Cal, I didn't mean that sarcastically."

"You shouldn't have said it. I've been…."

"No, you haven't. Everyone else has been outright mean to me, but you haven't done a thing. We're not as close as before, but out of everyone besides Horatio, you've been the most decent."

She looked at her feet. "I could've talked to Eric…..told him to keep his mouth shut…I could've talked to everyone. I was just….mad I guess."

"It wasn't your place to change everyone's opinions of me."

"I should've been nicer to you." She looked at the ceiling as if to stop the tears from coming. "I should have known something else was up with you today. Ryan….I'm so sorry…."

She felt him grab her hand and she looked at him. They didn't speak for a moment.

"I know you are." He said.

She finally let down her barrier and the tears fell. He pulled her into a hug and listened to her cry.

Horatio was rarely one to be surprised, but at this moment he was standing in the crack of the door with his mouth gaping wide. He decided that walking in then would make things awkward so he found a random security guard and struck up a conversation with him.

Once Calleigh had calmed down, she apologized up and down for letting her emotions show their ugly side and once Ryan finally got her to stop, she sat down in a nearby chair and talked. They talked about his family (whom she rarely heard of), her family, Boston, Louisiana, college, and every other topic besides Miami-Dade CSI. Calleigh looked at her watch and an hour had passed. "Oh my goodness, what happened to Horatio?"

She got up and peeked out the door to find Horatio engrossed in conversation with a security guard about the proper way to chase down perpetrators. She rolled her eyes and walked back into the room. Ryan was slowly drifting off to sleep. She came to the side of his bed and he looked at her with tired eyes. "I'm glad you're ok Ryan." She said.

"I'm glad you were there when I wasn't." He smiled at her.

She sat in the chair next to the bed and grabbed a nearby blanket. She wasn't going to leave his side again.

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**Amazing what ending finals does to stimulate your writing inspiration! I mean, I literally had my last final today. So here I am writing fan fiction. I'm crazy. But hey, aren't we all? Reviews are always fun.**


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